The Priest, the Woman and the Confessional

By CHARLES CHINIQUY

A former priest
warns of the dangers of the confessional

CHAPTER 7

Should Auricular Confession be Tolerated
Among Civilized Nations

LET my readers who understand Latin, peruse the
extracts I give from Bishop Kenrick, Debreyne, Burchard, Dens, or Liguori,
and the most incredulous will learn for themselves that the world, even in
the darkest ages of old paganism, has never seen anything more infamous and
degrading as auricular confession.

To say that auricular confession purifies the
soul, is not less ridiculous and silly than to say that the white robe of
the virgin, or the lily of the valley, will become whiter by being dipped
into a bottle of black ink.

Has not the Pope's celibate, by studying his books
before he goes to the confessional-box, corrupted his own heart, and plunged
his mind, memory, and soul into an atmosphere of impurity which would have
been intolerable even to the people of Sodom?

We ask it not only in the name of religion, but
of common sense. How can that man, whose heart and memory are just made the
reservoir of all the grossest impurities the world has ever known, help others
to be chaste and pure?

The idolaters of India believe that they will
be purified from their sins by drinking the water with which they have just
washed the feet of their priests.

What monstrous doctrine! The souls of men purified
by the water which has washed the feet of a miserable, sinful man! Is there
any religion more monstrous and diabolical than the Brahmin religion?

Yes, there is one more
monstrous, deceitful, and contaminating than that. It is the religion which
teaches that the soul of
man is purified by a few magical words (called absolution) which come from
the lips of a miserable sinner, whose heart and intelligence have just been
filled by the unmentionable impurities of Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, Kenrick, &c.
, &c. For if the poor Indian's soul is not purified by the drinking of
the holy (?) water which has touched the feet of his priest, at least that
soul cannot be contaminated by it. But who does not clearly see that the
drinking of the vile questions of the confessor contaminate, defile and damn
the soul?

Who has not been filled with deep compassion and
pity for those poor idolaters of Hindoostan, who believe that they will secure
to themselves a happy passage to the next life, if they have the good luck
to die when holding in their hands the tail of a cow? But there are people
among us who are not less worthy of our supreme compassion and pity; for
they hope that they will be purified from their sins and be forever happy,
if a few magical words (called absolution) fall upon their souls from the
polluted lips of a miserable sinner, sent by the Pope of Rome. The dirty
tail of a cow, and the magical words of a confessor, to purify the souls
and wash away the sins of the world, are equally inventions of the devil.
Both religions come from Satan, for they equally substitute the magical power
of vile creatures for the blood of Christ, to save the guilty children of
Adam. They both ignore that the blood of the Lamb alone cleanseth
us from all sin.

Yes! auricular confession
is a public act of idolatry. It is asking from a man what God alone, through
His Son Jesus, can grant:
forgiveness of sins. Has the Saviour of the world ever said to sinners, "Go
to this or that man for repentance, pardon and peace?" No: but he has said
to all sinners, "Come unto me." And from that day to the end of the world,
all the echoes of heaven and earth will repeat these words of the merciful
Saviour to all the lost children of Adam -- "Come unto me."

When Christ gave to His
disciples the power of the keys in these words, "whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound
in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt.
xviii. 18), He had just explained His mind by saying, "If thy brother shall
trespass against thee" (v. 15). The Son of God Himself, in that solemn hour,
protested against the stupendous imposture of Rome, by telling us positively
that that power of binding and loosing, forgiving and retaining sins, was
only in reference to sins committed against each other. Peter had
correctly understood his Master's words, when he asked, "How oft shall my
brother sin against me and I forgive him?"

And in order that His true
disciples might not be shaken by the sophisms of Rome, or by the glittering
nonsense of that
band of silly half-Popish Episcopalians, called Tractarians, Ritualists,
or Puseyites, the merciful Saviour gave the admirable parable of the poor
servant, which He closed by what He has so often repeated, "So likewise shall
my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye, from your hearts, forgive not
every one his brother their trespasses." (Matt. xviii. 35.)

Not long before, He had
again mercifully given us His whole mind about the obligation and power which
every one of His disciples
had of forgiving: -- "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly
Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive men not their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matt. vi. 14, 15.)

"Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also
is merciful; forgive and ye shall be forgiven." (Luke vi. 36, 37.)

Auricular Confession, as
the Rev. Dr. Wainwright has so eloquently put it in his "Confession not Auricular," is
a diabolical caricature of the forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ,
just as
the impious dogma of Transubstantiation is a monstrous caricature of the
salvation of the world through His death.

The Romanists, and their
ugly tail, the Ritualistic party in the Episcopal Church, make a great noise
about the words of our
Saviour, in St. John: "Whatsoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them:
and whatsoever sins ye retain, they are retained." (John xx. 23.)

Nobody but wilfully-blind
men could misunderstand Him. Besides that, the Holy Ghost Himself has mercifully
taken care that
we should not be deceived by the lying traditions of men, on that important
subject, when in St. Luke He gave us the explanation of the meaning of John
xx. 23, by telling us, "Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from
the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (Luke
xxiv. 46, 47.)

In order that we may better understand the words
of our Saviour in St. John xx. 23, let us put them face to face with His
own explanations (Luke xxiv. 46, 47).

LUKE XXIV.

33. And they rose up the same hour and returned
to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with
them.

36. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood
in the midst of them, and said unto them, Peace be unto you.

JOHN XX.

18. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples
that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.

19. Then the same day at evening, being the first
day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled,
for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them,
Peace be unto you.

37. But they were terrified and affrighted, and
supposed that they had seen a spirit.

38. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled?
and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

39. Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I
myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see
me have.

40. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them
his hands and his feet.

41. And while they yet believed not for joy, and
wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

42. And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish,
and of an honeycomb.

43. And he took it, and did eat before them.

44. And he said unto them, These are the words
which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and
in the psalms concerning me.

45. Then opened he their understanding, that they
might understand the Scriptures,

46. And said unto them, Thus it is written, and
thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

20. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them
his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.

21. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto
you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

22. And when he had said this, he breathed on
them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

47. And that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Three things are evident from comparing the report
of St. John and St. Luke:

1. They speak of the same event, though one of
them gives certain details omitted by the other, as we find in the rest of
the gospels.

2. The words of St. John, "Whose soever sins ye
remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they
are retained," are explained by the Holy Ghost Himself, in St. Luke, as meaning
that the apostles shall preach repentance and forgiveness of sins through
Christ. It is just what our Saviour has Himself said in St. Matthew ix. 13: "But
go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice:
for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

It is just the same doctrine
taught by Peter (Acts ii. 38): "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be
baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Just the same doctrine
of the forgiveness of sins, not through auricular confession or absolution,
but through the preaching
of the Word: "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins " (Acts xiii. 38).

3. The third thing which is evident is that the
apostles were not alone when Christ appeared and spoke, but that several
of His other disciples, even some women, were there.

If the Romanists, then,
could prove that Christ established auricular confession, and gave the power
of absolution, by what
He said in that solemn hour, women as well as men -- in fact, every believer
in Christ -- would be authorized to hear confessions and give absolution. The
Holy Ghost was not promised or given only to the Apostles, but to every believer,
as we see in Acts i. 15, and ii. 1, 2, 3.

But the Gospel of Christ, as well as the history
of the first ten centuries of Christianity, is the witness that auricular
confession and absolution are nothing else but a sacrilegious as well as
a most stupendous imposture.

What tremendous efforts
the priests of Rome have made, these last five centuries, and are still making,
to persuade their
dupes that the Son of God was making of them a privileged caste, a caste
endowed with the Divine and exclusive power of opening and shutting the gates
of Heaven, when He said, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound
in Heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven. "

But our adorable Saviour,
who perfectly foresaw those diabolical efforts on the part of the priests
of Rome, entirely upset
every vestige of their foundation by saying immediately, "Again I say unto
you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they
shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven. For
where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst
of them (Matt. xviii. 19, 20.)

Would the priests of Rome attempt to make us believe
that these words of the 19th and 20th verses are addressed to them exclusively?
They have not yet dared to say it. They confess that these words are addressed
to all His disciples. But our Saviour positively says that the other words,
implicating the so-called power of the priests to hear the confession and
give the absolution, are addressed to the very same persons -- " I say
unto you," &c., &c. The you of the 19th and 20th verses is
the same you of the 18th. The power of loosing and unloosing is, then,
given to all-those who would be offended and would forgive. Then, our Saviour
had not in His mind to form a caste of men with any marvellous power over
the rest of His disciples. The priests of Rome, then, are impostors, and
nothing else, when they say that the power of loosing and unloosing sins
was exclusively granted to them.

Instead of going to the
confessor, let the Christian go to his merciful God, through Christ, and
say, "Forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive them that trespass against us." This is the Truth, not as it
comes from the Vatican, but as it comes from Calvary, where our debts were
paid, with the only condition that we should believe, repent and love.

Have not the Popes publicly and repeatedly anathematized
the sacred principle of Liberty of Conscience? Have they not boldly said,
in the teeth of the nations of Europe, that Liberty of Conscience
must be destroyed -- killed at any cost? Has not the whole world heard the sentence
of death to liberty coming from the lips of the old man of the Vatican? But
where is the scaffold on which the doomed Liberty must perish? That scaffold
is the confessional-box. Yes, in the confessional, the Pope has his 100,000
high executioners! There they are, day and night, with sharp daggers in hand,
stabbing Liberty to the heart.

In vain will noble France expel her old tyrants
in order to be free; in vain will she shed the purest blood of her heart
to protect and save liberty! True liberty cannot live a day there so long
as the executioners of the Pope are free to stab her on their 100,000 scaffolds.

In vain chivalrous Spain will call Liberty to
give a new life to her people. Liberty cannot set her feet there, except
to die, so long as the Pope is allowed to strike her in his 50,000 confessionals.

And free America, too, will see all her so dearly-bought
liberties destroyed, the day that the confessional-box is universally reared
in her midst.

Auricular Confession and Liberty cannot stand
together on the same ground; either one or the other must fall.

Liberty must sweep away the confessional, as she
has swept away the demon of slavery, or she is doomed to perish.

Can a man be free in his own house, so long as
there is another who has the legal right to spy all his actions, and direct
not only every step, but every thought of his wife and children? Can that
man boast of a home whose wife and children are under the control of another?
Is not that unfortunate man really the slave of the ruler and master of his
household? And when a whole nation is composed of such husbands and fathers,
is it not a nation of abject, degraded slaves?

To a thinking man, one of the most strange phenomena
is that our modern nations allow their most sacred rights to be trampled
under foot, and destroyed by the Papacy, the sworn enemy of Liberty, through
a mistaken respect and love for that same Liberty!

No people have more respect
for Liberty of Conscience than the Americans; but has the noble State of
Illinois allowed Joe Smith
and Brigham Young to degrade and enslave the American women under the pretext
of Liberty of Conscience, appealed to by the so-called "Latter-day Saints
?" No! The ground was soon made too hot for the tender conscience of the
modern prophets. Joe Smith perished when attempting to keep his captive wives
in his chains, and Brigham Young had to fly to the solitudes of the Far West,
to enjoy what he called his liberty of conscience with the thirty women whom
he had degraded, and enchained under his yoke. But even in that remote solitude
the false prophet has heard the distant peals of the roaring thunder. The
threatened voice of the great Republic has troubled his rest, and before
his death he wisely spoke of going as much as possible out of the reach of
Christian civilisation, before the dark and threatening clouds which he saw
on the horizon would hurl upon him their irresistible storms.

Will any one blame the American people for so
going to the rescue of women? No, surely not.

But what is this confessional box? Nothing but
a citadel and stronghold of Mormonism.

What is this Father Confessor, with few exceptions,
but a lucky Brigham Young?

I do not want to be believed on my ipse dixit.
What I ask from serious thinkers is, that they should read the encyclicals
of the Piuses, the Gregorys, the Benoits, and many other Popes, "De Sollicitantibus." There
they will see, with their own eyes, that, as a general thing, the confessor
has more women to serve him than the Mormon prophets ever had. Let him read
the memoirs of one of the most venerable men of the Church of Rome, Bishop
Scipio de Ricci, and they will see, with their own eyes, that the confessors
are more free with their penitents, even nuns, than husbands are with their
wives. Let them hear the testimony of one of the noblest princesses of Italy,
Henrietta Carraceiolo, who still lives, and they will know that the Mormons
have more respect for women than the greater part of the confessors have.
Let them read the personal experience of Miss O'Gorman, five years a nun
in the United States, and they will understand that the priests and their
female penitents, even nuns, are outraging all the laws of God and man, through
the dark mysteries of auricular confession. That Miss O'Gorman, as well as
Miss Henrietta Carraceiolo, are still living. Why are they not consulted
by those who like to know the truth, and who fear that we exaggerate the
infamies which come from "auricular confession" as from their infallible
source? Let them hear the lamentations of Cardinal Baronius, St. Bernard,
Savanarola, Pius, Gregory, St. Therese, St. Liguori, on the unspeakable and
irreparable ruin spread all along the ways and all over the countries haunted
by the Pope's confessors, and they will know that the confessional-box is
the daily witness of abominations which would hardly have been tolerated
in the lands of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let the legislators, the fathers and
husbands of every nation and tongue, interrogate Father Gavazzi, Grassi,
and thousands of living priests who, like myself, have miraculously been
taken out from that Egyptian servitude to the promised land, and they will
tell you the same old, old story -- that the confessional-box is for the greatest
part of the confessors and female penitents, a real pit of perdition, into
which they promiscuously fall and perish. Yes; they will tell you that the
soul and heart of your wife and daughter are purified by the magical words
of the confessional, just as the souls of the poor idolaters of Hindoostan
are purified by the tail of the cow which they hold in their hands, when
they die. Study the pages of the past history of England, France, Italy,
Spain, &c., &c., and you will see that the gravest and most reliable
historians have, everywhere, found mysteries of iniquity in the confessional-box
which their pen refused to trace.

In the presence of such public, undeniable, and
lamentable facts, have not the civilised nations a duty to perform? Is it
not time that the children of light, the true disciples of the Gospel, all
over the world, should rally round the banners of Christ, and go, shoulder
to shoulder, to the rescue of women?

Woman is to society what the roots are to the
most precious trees of your orchard. If you knew that a thousand worms are
biting the roots of those noble trees, that their leaves are already fading
away, their rich fruits, though yet unripe, are falling on the ground, would
you not unearth the roots and sweep away the worms?

The confessor is the worm which is biting, polluting,
and destroying the very roots of civil and religious society, by contaminating,
debasing, and enslaving woman.

Before the nations can see the reign of peace,
happiness, and liberty, which Christ has promised, they must, like the Israelites,
pull down the walls of Jericho. The confessional is the modern Jericho, which
defiantly dares the children of God!

Let, then, the people of the Lord, the true soldiers
of Christ, rise up and rally around His banners; and let them fearlessly
march, shoulder to shoulder, on the doomed city: let all the trumpets of
Israel be sounded around its walls: let fervent prayers go to the throne
of Mercy, from the heart of every one for whom the Lamb has been slain: let
such a unanimous cry of indignation be heard, through the length and breadth
of the land, against that greatest and most monstrous imposture of modern
times, that the earth will tremble under the feet of the confessor, so that
his very knees will shake, and soon the walls of Jericho, will fall, the
confessional will disappear, and its unspeakable pollutions will no more
imperil the very existence of society.

Then the multitudes who were kept captive will
come to the Lamb, who will make them pure with His blood and free with His
word.

Then the redeemed nations
will sing a song of joy: "Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots and abominations
of the earth, is fallen! is fallen!"